finally, the butcher day photos!
Yes we did actully do it ... the pigs disappeard and we then went to pick them up as 4 x half sides of pork. Picking them up on the friday night was very very weird - huge friges with more beef, pork and lamb than i've ever seen - and this was a tiny family run place!
We kept the boys in a just-turned-off freezer over night, to keep them chilled out, and then had an early start on a bright saturday morning for butching.
My main job was to keep running between my laptop, to play, pause and replay bits of the River Cottage 'Pig in a day' DVD, which was our butchering guide throughout, we couldn't have done it without Hugh and Rays calm advice and demonstrations! If you have pigs for the first time - you need this DVD.
I won't comment on all the pics below as they are mostly self-evident, and i've tired to get them in time order.
This is what we did to our pigs:
We bought a big bit of plywood, which put onto the greenhouse decking made a great butchers table.
Ben and Sam insisted that the flat caps were essential butcher's clothing!?!
I now know how to tie proper butcher's knots - a life skill worth having for anyone!
Making bacon....
we used all of the belly pork from both boys, and the back loin from Minty to make streaky and back bacon, very easy, just a box, a bunch of salt and a few aromatics like pepper, juniper and bay leaves.
and we also made up a brine of water, salt, apple juice, cider, bay leaves, juniper and a bunch of other lovely smelly bits, into which went 2 of the legs to make hams. It smelt a lot better than it looked, honest.
Making sausages...
we did this the next morning, started by mincing all the diced pork which we'd made from the shoulders and other off-cuts, then into the real hog casings!
until we ran out of that sausage mix!
Hugh says that only a few people understand the way to tie sausages in the traditional 3 sausage loops, and if you can do it first time off you are a 'sausage twisting genius'. I am that genius! We felt that living in Cumbria we had to do a Cumberland ring too, not as much fun.
after 3 recipes of breakfast bangers, we moved onto salamis and chorizos - really easy to do, just pork, salt, garlic and pepper (salami) or three types of paprika (chorizo). Will definatly do some more of these again! (we ended up moving them into the potting shed as there were too many flies outside, but they look better in this photo!)
Making bacon - part 2
after about 4 - 5 days the bacon gets all the salt cure washed off, and then sliced (with sams' fantastic ebay purchase slicing machine) and packed in greeseproof paper for a freezer load of bacon
some of our steaky bacon
and most (but not all!) of the packs of the bacon.
Then the really good bit - the eating!
This is our first sausage, which was delicious.
and this is the first of the hams, that we glazed with honey and mustard and baked. So far, this has been my absolute favourite, although Sam preferred the spare rib joint that we did 'Donnie Brasco' - so called by Hugh because you put it in a cool oven and then 'forgetta bout it' for 18 hours.
Our total porky output:
Big box of bacon - gave some away to grateful friends, still have lots in freezer
about 8 packs of sausages, got invited to a few BBQs after the first ones were tasted, and they've now all gone!
about 32 burgers - only about 6 left in freezer now
4 salamis and 5 choirtzoz - nearly all gone - fantastic flavours!
2 hams - one eaten, one in freezer
1 leg - in freezer for a big family roast next autumn
4 spare rib joints - very tasty
2 rolled loins - great for a sunday roast, soft meat, easy to carve
4 tenderloins - haven't had any yet but gave one to sams dad who loved it
4 chump ends - in retrospect should have made these into sausages
4 x 4 chops - big, thick and delicate slightly sweet tasting meat
trotters - i'm not a fan but sam likes them as does Bens dad!
spare ribs - nearly all gone now, small and not much meat on them, but very tasty and great at BBQs with homemade marinade on (soy, honey, mustard and Vals plum jar main ingredients)
i think that's everything... oh, kidneys, but no livers or blood so no pate or black puddings.
if we did it again, we'd probably make more bits into sausages, as these are great gifts, you get to make different recipes, great for BBQs, breakfast or an easy dinner. More burgers too, and more salamis. It would have been good to get the livers to make pate as well.
We're still eating our way through it, and its all marked up with an M or a G so we know which of our boys it came from. I know some people find that odd, but I actully prefer to eat Minty, who I know had a great life, good food, was happy and lived like a pig should live - outside and rummaging around, rather than a lump of pork from a supermarket that leaves me wondering if anyone ever fed it an acorn or scratched it behind its ears?
We'd definatly do it again - our only problem is that Val and Abi want their garden space back, so we need to find a new place with room for some pigs!
We kept the boys in a just-turned-off freezer over night, to keep them chilled out, and then had an early start on a bright saturday morning for butching.
My main job was to keep running between my laptop, to play, pause and replay bits of the River Cottage 'Pig in a day' DVD, which was our butchering guide throughout, we couldn't have done it without Hugh and Rays calm advice and demonstrations! If you have pigs for the first time - you need this DVD.
I won't comment on all the pics below as they are mostly self-evident, and i've tired to get them in time order.
This is what we did to our pigs:
We bought a big bit of plywood, which put onto the greenhouse decking made a great butchers table.
Ben and Sam insisted that the flat caps were essential butcher's clothing!?!
I now know how to tie proper butcher's knots - a life skill worth having for anyone!
Making bacon....
we used all of the belly pork from both boys, and the back loin from Minty to make streaky and back bacon, very easy, just a box, a bunch of salt and a few aromatics like pepper, juniper and bay leaves.
and we also made up a brine of water, salt, apple juice, cider, bay leaves, juniper and a bunch of other lovely smelly bits, into which went 2 of the legs to make hams. It smelt a lot better than it looked, honest.
Making sausages...
we did this the next morning, started by mincing all the diced pork which we'd made from the shoulders and other off-cuts, then into the real hog casings!
until we ran out of that sausage mix!
Hugh says that only a few people understand the way to tie sausages in the traditional 3 sausage loops, and if you can do it first time off you are a 'sausage twisting genius'. I am that genius! We felt that living in Cumbria we had to do a Cumberland ring too, not as much fun.
after 3 recipes of breakfast bangers, we moved onto salamis and chorizos - really easy to do, just pork, salt, garlic and pepper (salami) or three types of paprika (chorizo). Will definatly do some more of these again! (we ended up moving them into the potting shed as there were too many flies outside, but they look better in this photo!)
Making bacon - part 2
after about 4 - 5 days the bacon gets all the salt cure washed off, and then sliced (with sams' fantastic ebay purchase slicing machine) and packed in greeseproof paper for a freezer load of bacon
some of our steaky bacon
and most (but not all!) of the packs of the bacon.
Then the really good bit - the eating!
This is our first sausage, which was delicious.
and this is the first of the hams, that we glazed with honey and mustard and baked. So far, this has been my absolute favourite, although Sam preferred the spare rib joint that we did 'Donnie Brasco' - so called by Hugh because you put it in a cool oven and then 'forgetta bout it' for 18 hours.
Our total porky output:
Big box of bacon - gave some away to grateful friends, still have lots in freezer
about 8 packs of sausages, got invited to a few BBQs after the first ones were tasted, and they've now all gone!
about 32 burgers - only about 6 left in freezer now
4 salamis and 5 choirtzoz - nearly all gone - fantastic flavours!
2 hams - one eaten, one in freezer
1 leg - in freezer for a big family roast next autumn
4 spare rib joints - very tasty
2 rolled loins - great for a sunday roast, soft meat, easy to carve
4 tenderloins - haven't had any yet but gave one to sams dad who loved it
4 chump ends - in retrospect should have made these into sausages
4 x 4 chops - big, thick and delicate slightly sweet tasting meat
trotters - i'm not a fan but sam likes them as does Bens dad!
spare ribs - nearly all gone now, small and not much meat on them, but very tasty and great at BBQs with homemade marinade on (soy, honey, mustard and Vals plum jar main ingredients)
i think that's everything... oh, kidneys, but no livers or blood so no pate or black puddings.
if we did it again, we'd probably make more bits into sausages, as these are great gifts, you get to make different recipes, great for BBQs, breakfast or an easy dinner. More burgers too, and more salamis. It would have been good to get the livers to make pate as well.
We're still eating our way through it, and its all marked up with an M or a G so we know which of our boys it came from. I know some people find that odd, but I actully prefer to eat Minty, who I know had a great life, good food, was happy and lived like a pig should live - outside and rummaging around, rather than a lump of pork from a supermarket that leaves me wondering if anyone ever fed it an acorn or scratched it behind its ears?
We'd definatly do it again - our only problem is that Val and Abi want their garden space back, so we need to find a new place with room for some pigs!
